Contact Form

Explorations: my author blog

I’m very troubled by what’s happening in the world generally, and in the Middle East in particular, and I’m struggling to understand it. I am posting this now because it is Holy Week, and I think that’s relevant to my understanding.

Amidst all the trouble and bloodshed, a few facts do stand out:

1.ISIL did not exist a few years ago, before we bombed Libya and invaded Iraq.

2.Al Qaida was not present in those countries either.

3.Also, it’s quite true, as far as I know, that Qaddafi, Saddam Hussein, and Bashar Al Assad are or were tyrants. Still, this much can be said for them. Before the invasions and bombings and (in Syria) civil war, their countries were secular states in which all the “peoples of the book” lived in relative safety. Christians and Jews were not persecuted; in fact, as I remember, some Christians had positions in Saddam Hussein’s government. Nor did various Muslim sects carry out attacks against each other.

So why are these countries being destroyed? Why are republicans in the U.S. now also trying to start a war with Iran? Don’t we all have troubles enough?